Where have we been, where are we now and where is skateboarding going?
The beginning
If we’re going to try to figure out the future, it’s probably a good idea to go back first and see how this started.
It all started in the 1950s, when California surfers began putting roller skate wheels on wooden boards and strolling their local streets. Skateboard makers began to emerge in the early sixties and a new lifestyle was born.
Urethane skateboard wheels were invented in 1972 and are still in use today. In the mid-70s, the first skateboard parks began to appear that naturally spawned new riding styles, new tricks, and new boards as skaters went upright. Also in the mid-1970s, a new competitive scene was born when a slalom and freestyle contest was held at the Ocean Festival in Del Mar, California. The famous Zephyr team took the skate world around with their aggressive new approach to freestyle skating. In 1978 Alan Gelfand invented the most famous skate trick of all, the “Ollie” (the 70s were a great decade for skating).
The 80s were a comparatively slow decade for skateboarding, although there was a boost that came with the popularity of the VCR when the first skate videos were introduced. The Bones Brigade Video Show was particularly popular and made Steve Caballero, Tony Hawk, Mike McGill, Lance Mountain, Rodney Mullen, Stacy Peralta, and Kevin Staab household names among the skating fraternity.
The first Extreme Games were held in Rhode Island in 1995 and the skate competition received a lot of attention, generating increased interest in the sport and raising its profile in the wider community. Skateboarding was also part of the early Winter X games in ’97 and competitive skateboarding had become really common.
The biggest thing in the skateboarding world in the 2000s is the enormous popularity of the video game console. Skateboarding games are well suited to the format and there have been blockbuster video games every year in the 2000s. A new generation of skateboarders was born when kids swapped their console controllers for real ones.
The future of skateboarding
Competitive skating will establish itself as a legitimate mainstream sport in the same way as surfing and surf culture. Only a few decades ago, surfers were viewed as untrustworthy reprobate. These days, parents don’t think twice about visiting the surf shops that exist in every mall and carrying surf tag clothing for their kids, who might not even know what a beach looks like. Kelly Slater, Mick Fanning, Rip Curl, Quiksilver and Billabong are now trusted global brands. Like it or not, see if skating follows the same path. We’ll see mind-blowing tricks that harness energy and athleticism that would seem unimaginable today. Skateboarding heroes will go mainstream and expect to see a much more advanced global competitive scene. Once again, it is instructive to take a look at the path of surfing. The competitive surfing scene floundered for decades before getting under way in the late 1980s, when the courageous step was taken to hand over ultimate control of the sport to a single governing body. A new man-to-man format was introduced and the contests were brought to the best waves at the best time of year. The general good of sport eventually outweighed provincialism and commercial interest, and poor and uncompetitive contests were discarded. Now, surfing has been hugely successful – it has a sophisticated multi-level competitive scene with massive media coverage. Can skating follow the same path? Yes, if you allow it.
When it comes to local ramps and skate parks, expect bigger walls, bigger bowls, and more of them. As the current generation of skaters grows up and it’s their turn to weigh in on city council spending and infrastructure, this is good news for skaters who like parks and ramps.
Technology will affect skateboards in the same way as many other products. Stronger and lighter materials will appear and the rapid distribution of information means that the design of tables and trucks will advance even faster. The impact of the internet is both a challenge and an opportunity for the local skateboard shop. The growth rates of e-commerce are huge and more people are interested in buying skateboards online. The web allows a distribution model that effectively brings the consumer closer to the skateboard store. If you’re craving the good old days of the 70’s wooden plank, then this might not do you much good, but if you’re a kid on a budget, it’s all good news. Expect better and more technically advanced products at lower prices.
If skateboarding follows the same lines as other markets, then we could see further consolidation among the big brands, similar to Billabong’s acquisition of Sector 9. Other big players in today’s skateboarding market are brands like Birdhouse, Girl, Zero, Plan B, Element, and Blind. There is a good chance that we could see a large company buy a stable of big skate brands to get the price benefit that comes with volume, which can obviously help with the price of the product, but it doesn’t always result in a design. of original product and creativity (when was the last time Ford or GM presented a great product?). In any market, if the big ones get bigger, then opportunities arise for the smaller players to carve out their own niche for local markets and buyers who are less brand conscious.
Maple is still the premium building material for decks, but the day is surely coming when maple will be replaced, at least for some deck styles. New styles of boards will continue to emerge – the humble skateboards of the early days have already evolved into longboards, cruisers, retro boards, pool boards, old school and mountain boards. In addition to lighter, stronger trucks and better quality wheels, there will be new forms of deck plans and original artwork.
So there you have it, a quick look back and a glimpse into the future, and the future looks good!